Routstr Payment Proxy

Routstr is a decentralized protocol for permissionless, private, and censorship-resistant AI inference. It combines Nostr for discovery and Cashu for private Bitcoin micropayments.

This repo contains Routstr Core: a FastAPI-based reverse proxy that sits in front of OpenAI-compatible APIs and handles pay-per-request billing.

Start Here

• Overview: https://docs.routstr.com/overview/
• Provider Guide: https://docs.routstr.com/provider/quickstart/
• User Guide: https://docs.routstr.com/user-guide/introduction/

Basic Usage

If you are a user/developer, you just point an OpenAI-compatible SDK at a Routstr node and pay with a Cashu token.

OpenAI SDK

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.routstr.com/v1",
    api_key="cashuBo2FteCJodHRwczovL21...",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-5-nano",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "hello"}],
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

cURL

curl https://api.routstr.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-cashu: cashuBo2FteCJodHRwczovL21..." \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-5-nano",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "hello"}]
  }'

Quick Start (Docker)

If you are a node runner, start a Routstr Core instance using Docker Compose:

1. Prepare your .env:

   ADMIN_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword
   NAME="My AI Node"
   DESCRIPTION="Fast access to models"
   NSEC=yournsec
   RECEIVE_LN_ADDRESS=yourname@wallet.com

2. Start the services:

   docker compose up -d

3. Configure: Open http://localhost:8000/admin/ to connect your AI providers and set pricing.

For full instructions, see the Provider Quick Start Guide.

Development

make setup
cp .env.example .env
fastapi run routstr